In many countries, remittances received from abroad are essential to the recipients’ welfare. But money transmission can be a high-risk business, and even though money transmitters around the world are required to comply with a detailed framework of anti-money laundering (AML) laws and regulations, they still can be misused by criminals. Concerned about their own potential liability should a money transmitter have regulatory problems, banks have been dropping money transmitters that have been clients for years and/or not establishing accounts for new ones.

Kathleen A. Scott wrote a recent column in the New York Law Journal that discusses new guidance issued by the Financial Action Task Force on the responsibilities of regulators regarding international money remittances and the current “de-risking” trend.

Read the article: ‘International guidance for money transmitters and their supervisors’